I decided to move to an offset mortgage because I needed something akin to a large overdraft facility. I had a look at Virgin One, but their lending rates were very expensive compared to IF.
Some bright spark in marketing had the idea of calling the accounts jars. To make any practical use of the offset facility you more or less have to have a current account "jar", with a normal sort code and account number. The other jars are like ordinary bank accounts but lack these attributes which are vital for actually interacting with the rest of the banking system.
There is a big problem about having a large credit balance to offset the mortgage account, because the direct debit mortgage payments are based on the gross debit balance, not the net balance (as I assume it would be in the more straightforward unified account, "Virgin One Style"). The result is that after a couple of years you are forced to go through the rigmarole of making an application for a further advance. This means you have to pay futher administration fees, and valuation fees.
But the worst aspect of the whole thing is that IF simply need to be chased constantly. Your application gets stuck in the system and only a call from the account holder can unjam it. You get told that the application is waiting on a call to the account holder, but there is no mechanism actually to action anyone to make the call.
It is desperately depressing talking to the first-name-only call centre staff as they seem to have the haziest idea about their own products.
(updated on 14 July)
I always refer to this bank as 'so called Intelligent Finance". Their customer service is truly awful. I began the process of getting a further advance on my existing mortgage more than four months ago, but I am still waiting for an offer to be provided. On many occasions I have been told "the advance has been approved, you should find the funds in your current account tomorrow" only to find that the application has got into some kind of blocked state for which the only solution is to start the whole process again.
Individuals seem pleasant and helpful enough, and often apologise for failings in the internal communication between different IF departments, and even promise to take ownership of the problem, but unfortunately these promises are never kept.
The most annoying part of the whole process is that all this kind of thing has to be done by telephone. It would just be so much more efficient to use email or instant messaging, to be able to create a proper log of what was said. I suppose I can see why they would be reluctant to allow any customer access to such a log.
The IF website implies that extensive facilities are available online:
Simon likes the way he can control all his finances online. He was first attracted to IntelligentFinance when he was able to transfer his current account. Since then he has moved his current account and taken out a mortgage, loan and set up savings that he is able to offset with his borrowings.
However, even the most basic operations. like making a CHAPS transfer or making a Euro payment are not accessible through the website and it is certainly not possible to increase one's mortgage online without endless calls to an overworked call centre.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Online service makes managing your money easy and offset mortgages can make significant savings Disadvantages: Cumbersome online facility, drawn out and error prone application procedures and poor customer service
Advantages: Pay off mortgage early, save thousands in interest payments, low interest rate, tax-free savings Disadvantages: they can be a bit picky about who they'll take on
Jul 14th, 2006
very helpful by (64%):
helpful by (36%):
